On 31st August 2012, Friday, there was a Straits Times article entitled, “Massive Construction Boom On The Horizon”. The article announced that at least $55 billion worth of construction projects is currently being undertaken or will be undertaken until 2021. Two of the more significant road projects are the $4.3 billion Marina Coastal Expressway and the $8 billion North South Expressway. Industry experts said the projects will cause a spike in demand for and costs of engineering expertise, foreign workers, building materials and equipment. Mr Or Toh Wat, the Group Managing Director of OKP Holdings, was interviewed in the article and he said that OKP has hired more people and added to its inventory of equipment in preparation for new contracts. He added that the coming years will be the busiest the industry has been since the last construction boom from 2007 to 2010 (when the two Integrated Resorts were built). The major road projects are as follows (some of them are already under construction):
- 5km Marina Coastal Expressway: $4.3 billion, ready by the end of 2013
- New underpass and widening of roads in Kallang: $254 million, ready by 2014
- Road tunnel linking Sentosa to the mainland, widening of surrounding roads: $537 million, ready in 2015
- Interchange connecting three expressways and the Seletar Aerospace Park: $255 million, ready in 2015
- Major arterial road from the Central Expressway to Yishun Avenue 6: $354 million, ready in 2015
- 21.5km North-South Expressway: between $7 billion and $8 billion, ready in 2020
The major rail projects are as follows (some of them are already under construction):
- 42km Downtown Line: $20.7 billion, ready in stages from 2013 to 2017.
- 1km North-South Line extension to Marina Bay: $357.5 million, ready in 2014.
- 7.5km Tuas West extension on the East-West Line: $3.5 billion, ready in 2016.
- 30km Thomson Line: $18 billion, ready in stages from 2019 to 2021.
In my opinion, the infrastructure boom certainly bodes well for OKP. I hope there will be opportunities for OKP to form joint ventures with major companies involved in rail construction to expand their revenue base. OKP have never undertaken a rail project so far. However, competition is intense in the rail projects segment since foreign companies from China, South Korea and Japan frequently bid for such projects. Many of the Downtown Line stations are currently being constructed by foreign firms.
SudhanP.com 
I wonder.. What did u study in school? I just can’t analyse business and understand the report. And many book I read I understand only 20 percent of that it say. And you without any mentor could invest by reading book. Envy and is a pleasure to know you.
Hi
I studied Science and Engineering in school. I learnt investing and finance from books and going for certain courses. It can be done. You can try going for an investing course to enable you to learn faster about investing. If you have read books and still cannot get it, going for courses might help but you must be prepared to pay thousands of dollars. Cheers!
may i know which course you went to? email me if u did not want to share here. sorry, i read 3 books per month and i re-read it again and again. i still cant get it. I thought i am dumb or i am not in this field, but i realize i need help if i want. Thank again FFN.
Hello Joker,
I hope I’m not too intrusive. In my opinion, 2 great books to start for people who wants to learn more about investing would be Peter Lynch’s ‘One Up on Wall Street’ and Pat Dorsey’s ‘The Five Rules For Succesful Stock Investing’. Perhaps you find it really hard because you started out with books that are much harder to understand (Intelligent Investor can be a pretty tough read at times). I hope it helps. Good luck!
Cheers,
Ser Jing
Hi Ser Jing,
Great recommendations!
I have also quoted those books in my post on “How to get started in value investing” at https://financiallyfreenow.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/how-to-get-started-in-value-investing/.
i hope i am not spaming here, but i thank you guys for helping, Yes i did read Pat dorsey books, but i belong to the slow side, i hope i will practice till i am as good as those investor out there. will keep a look out for peter lynch’s book. :)
Hi Joker,
Start with companies you are familiar with. Check out what are the brands you use in your daily life all the time? Restaurants you love dining out at? Clothes you like to wear? Some of these companies are publicly traded and you can find their financial information on sites like Yahoo Finance or Google Finance. Pat Dorsey and Peter Lynch’s books gives you a nice overview of what are the important numbers to look at.
Then, because you are familiar with the products and services you have been using, you might intuitively know what are the important factors that can affect the success of the businesses.
If you look closely enough, our daily lives present an amazing number of investment opportunities. Understand the business – how does it generate sales? Is it earning money? Does it need alot of debt to grow its business?
Over time, you’ll get better. Investing is a marathon, not a sprint. You might miss a big opportunity now, but if your process is right, you can take advantage of the next opportunity that comes your way. Great companies give you the chance to invest in them all the time.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Ser Jing
Hi Ser Jing,
Thanks for your comments. Well said! What you have mentioned is so true – ” Investing is a marathon, not a sprint. You might miss a big opportunity now, but if your process is right, you can take advantage of the next opportunity that comes your way. Great companies give you the chance to invest in them all the time.”.